Just when you thought it was safe to surf the net again, your computer starts acting like it is possessed. Programs open and close, some are unresponsive and your Internet speed has been reduced to a slow crawl. These are just a few of the signs that you may have what we have termed a “computer virus”.
A virus is a small program (or script) that was written for the express purpose of reproducing itself over and over on a host computer. The virus attaches itself to a host program and continually writes unwanted commands to a computer's autoexec.bat files or the config.sys file. A virus can come in the form of a worm (which spreads from one host program to another), or it can come in the form of a Trojan (which is masked within a program for a long period of time and becomes hard to detect until you attempt to run that specific program (hence you engage the Trojan). Although a virus may sound like it's a simple pain in the posterior, it can be very damaging to your computer's hardware, software, and it can eventually cause one to lose valuable data from their systems.
Here are some signs to look for to determine whether or not your computer has a virus:
- Wrong or out of place programs or applications executing on their own
- Numerous pop-ups and unrelated warning messages constantly filling your screen
- Unusual actions such as changes in the screen (color or shade) and the graphics in general
- Change in ram usage. The amount of available ram sometimes decreases as the virus runs its script (press control, alt, delete to bring up the task manager. Under the performance tab you can see your ram usage)
- A change in file sizes
- Unrecognized icons or files
- If one knows the contents of their autoexec.bat and their config.sys files, you can look for inserted lines or commands that have been added.
- Freezing or slowing down of your computer
- Uncommanded disk activity
- File sizes increase on the disk as a whole
- Your amount of free space on your hard drive suddenly decreases drastically
- Wrong access dates of files
- Pull-down menus are distorted and unorganized
- Gibberish characters appear on the names of icons and in the toolbars
- Printing is made difficult (may even print gibberish characters and nothing else)
- Cannot access disk drives properly
- Applications work incorrectly
- Computer turns off and restarts suddenly (common with Trojans)
- Internet speed diminishes or the Internet is inaccessible altogether
Solutions
Now that we know what viruses are and are capable of doing, what is a best defense? Use of a firewall can help protect your computer. A good virus scanner (that you keep updated) is a must. Scanning regularly is also very important. Even when you don't suspect a virus, give your computer a chance to be scanned. You may just be surprised.
Keeping away from unsafe Internet sites (porn, warez, free programs) is also a good idea. These sites tend to bombard you with pop-ups, which in some cases are ad-ware Trojans that will appear repeatedly on your computer as ads.
Always have your important data backed up on disk, CD or external drive. Although we can take steps to protect our computer systems and ourselves, nothing is 100? foolproof. Take the time to back up you pictures, your work and your important data!
